“Why would they get more AFTER retiring than they earned while working?”
Well all I can tell you is that both of them were making $188,000 per year, and their first year retirement incomes were $100,000 more than that. Perhaps their Health and Welfare Benes were included in that number. I also know that our town’s first Chief of Police was making less than $80k when he retired. Since public pensions are a matter of public record, I looked his up the other day $160,000! You see they are “indexed” for “inflation” so they get “pay increases” every year. And back when the county was flush (before 2007), they gave all retirees a big pop with “extra” money they had that was burning a hole in their pockets. Also, FWIW, in our county, the only employees making more money than the fire fighters, are the doctors at the county hospital, all of whose names you can’t pronounce! Our County Administrator, DA, Tax Collector, etc. don’t make as much as the FFs.
Astonishing pensions——and the taxpayers are footing the bill.
I’m amazed at the amounts.
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Those first year figures often include payment for untaken vacations, partial payment for unused sick leave, and like that. It’s also fairly common for municipal executives to have deferred compensation schemes in their contracts.
One routine irritation for me is the pension bump game played by public safety folks who take a promotion with a jump in pay in their last year on the job, work a year, then pass that along to the next guy.
They save up all their (generous) holiday and untaken "sick days" and load them into the last year of "work" ...so boosting the last year of employment and the ultimate pension
Nice work if you can get it.
Spokeshave whom is still working at 74.5---(yea, but I just passed the 360 lb leg press mark)